Homme- 

jIPMTKK# 


The  Telegraph  :  a  more  rapid  method  of  Carrying  the  Letters  of  the  People. 


THE 


POSTAL  TELEGRAPH. 


A  LECTURE  BY  CHARLES  A.  SUMNER, 

Delivered  at  Dashaway  Hall,  San  Francisco,  Oct.  12th,  1875. 


H'  .?■ 

WITH  APPENDIX. 


Sketch  of  early  Telegraph  Construction _ The  beginning  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 

Company _ Definition  of  a  Postal  Telegraph _ Increase  of  patronage  consequent  on  reduction  of 

tariff — The  Iiritish  Postal  Telegraph  :  its  wonderful  success  as  an  accommodation  for  the  people  and 

an  investment  for  the  Government _ How  the  stock  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  has 

been  watered _ The  alliance  of  the  W.  U.  Tel.  Co.  and  the  Associated  Press — Illegitimate  profits 

of  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  “ring:”  the  little  wheel  of  speculation  within  the  big  globe 
of  monopoly  —  Antagonism  of  the  Telegraph  Monopoly  to  practical  improvement  m  the  Art  — 
The  only  sure  and  lasting  remedy  for  the  extortions  of  the  “  Western  Union  “  competition  will  not 
avail.”  —  The  Tableof  Net  Profits,  by  the  Queen  of  England’s  Postmaster  General  —  Why  we  have 

no  morning  Democratic  daily  in  San  Francisco _ The  monopoly’s  lawyers’ pet  objection  for  their 

lobby  and  their  flunkies  in  Legislatures— “  a  Paternal  Government”— duly  considered  and  disposed 
of One  of  the  tricks  of  misrepresentation  on  the  part  of  the  telegraph  monopoly’s  officers  —  Testi¬ 
mony  of  Postmasters  General,  who  have  investigated  the  subject. . .  .The  fact  of  monopoly  and  the 
power  for  government  construction  of  telegraphs,  stated  by  most  conservative  Democratic  states¬ 
men _ Monopoly  intimidation  at  Washington _ Sham  Postal  Telegraph  bills _ Our  comparatively 

greater  need  of  a  Postal  Telegraph _ Actual  cost  of  a  two-wire  overland  line  ten  years  ago  — 

Illustrations  of  actual  amounts  of  extortions  by  the  monopoly. ..  .The  present  infamously  partisan 

control  of  telegraphs  in  the  United  States  :  emancipation  from  it  by  Government  management _ 

Why  printers  should  favor  a  Postal  Telegraph  ...  .What  the  telegraph  monopolists  consider  a 
“menace.”  —  Insolence  of  the  monopoly  officers  at  Washington _ The  comparison  with  the  Mon¬ 
treal  Telegraph  Company _ The  way  in  which  the  monopoly  frown  down  new  inventions  :  decrjdng 

Duplex  and  Automatic  telegraphy _ Actual  cost  ot  battery  acid  —  Specimens  of  audaciously  false 

figuring  by  the  monopoly’s  creatures _ A  net  revenue-in  part  re-stated,  to  confront  a  monopoly 

“  argument  ”  and  aggressively  commend  the  system  of  Postal  Telegraphy. 


SAN  FRANCISCO  : 

BACON  &  COMPANY,  BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTERS, 
Corner  Clay  and  Sansome  Streets. 

1879. 


\  \ 


ST.  AUGUSTINE’S  COLLEGE, 

BENICIA,  CAL. 

RT.  REV.  BISHOP  WINGFIELD,  -  -  PRESIDENT. 

Military  training  under  West  Point  Officers. 

Boys  fitted  for  business  life  or  the  Universities.  Send  for  circulars. 

R.  S  MACBETH, 

PHYSICIAN  AlIsTD  STJUGEOUNT 
Office  al  the  Health  Lift  Rooms, 

N.  E.  Corner  of  Kearny  and  Pine  Streets,  $an  Yranciseo. 

DISEASES  OF  CHILDREN  A  SPECIALTY. 


WILLIAM  HAKN-EY, 


410  CALIFORNIA  STREET,  SAN  FRANCISCO. 


DOANE  &  HENSHELWOOD, 


OF  THE  CITY. 

S.  E.  Corner  of  Kearny  and  Sutter  Streets. 


-"L TT\YOU  WISH 

mm 

A  Ty 

CORKER  of  Cm  &m£MjSCfMZ. 
/{ccurate -prompt-  treasonable. 


A  PLAIN  TALK 

ABOUT  THE 

POSTAL  TELEGRAPH, 

By  CHARLES  A.  STJMNER. 


The  speaker  was  introduced  by  Mr.  E.  T.  Batturs. 

Mr.  Sumner  said : — 

I  will  venture  now  to  remind  you  that  when  I  last  had  the  honor  of 
addressing  an  audience  in  this  place,  I  incidentally  and  indirectly  alluded  to 
the  subject  which  I  shall  bring  forward  somewhat  in  detail  to-night :  the 
Postal,  Telegraph. 

I  am  not  about  to  speak  to  you  at  length  of’  the  commonly  adopted  meth¬ 
ods  of  telegraphing,  or  even  to  recapitulate  the  main  facts  in  the  history  of 
the  invention.  I  can  allude  to  one  or  two  important  points  in  that  history, 
and  offer  congratulations  for  the  present  time,  for  the  age  and  generation, 
which  they  evidently  should  mark  for  us,  day  by  day ;  and  then  pass  to  the 
consideration  of  what  I  must  contend  ought  to  be  the  still  vaster  popular 
benefits  of  the  discovery  and  application  of  the  electric  telegraph. 

The  change  is  indeed  wonderful :  which  has  been  wrought  by  the  genius 
and  perseverance  of  Prof.  Morse.  The  majority  of  this' audience  undoubtedly 
remember  the  beginning  of  practical  telegraphy.  You  and  I,  sir,  remember 
it,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  our  boyhood  ;  when  the  railroad  car  was  superseded 
as  the  deliverer  of  the  Governor’s  message  and  other  important  documents, 
once  carried  on  rival  routes  to  metropolitan  newspapers  by  express  trains  from 
the  capital  of  the  State  at  which  the  inaugural  or  other  formal  gubernatorial 
address  was  promulgated.  And  perhaps  a  little  before  that  time,  the  Eakir 
man  connected  with  his  ventriloquism  and  his  double  cups  and  platters  a  spec¬ 
imen  battery  and  register,- — working  between  himself  and  his  attendant  who 
was  stationed  at  the  hotel  relay  to  receive  and  respond.  It  was  but  yesterday. 
We  remember  well  when  the  first  telegraph  poles  were  planted  and  the  first 
wires  strung  in  our  respective  sections  of  the  country  ;  and  well  we  remember 
those  delicious,  precious  old  jokes  about  the  poor  rustic  woman  who  insisted 
on  ascertaining  from  the  operator  how  the  letters  were  sent  through  the  insu¬ 
lators, — those  charming  anecdotes  of  the  same  substance,  but  of  infinite  va¬ 
riety  of  dialogue,  that  endured  for  ten  years  or  more  without  apparently  losing 
any  of  their  properties  as  good  newspaper  fodder  for  the  funny  column  of  all 
the  village  and  literary  journals  of  the  land, — (and  I  think  they  have  hardly 
passed  out  of  service  at  the  hour  we  celebrate) . 

We  know  that  many  politicians  of  prominence  and  some  men  of  scientific 
attainments  in  our  country  have  a  sorry  record  with  respect  to  the  efforts  that 
were  first  made  for  the  establishment  of  the  magnetic  telegraph  as  a  common 
carrier  of  intelligence ;  but  not  so  sorrowful,  I  am  sure,  as  some  of  the  latter 
day,  who  have,  by  indifference  or  direct  combat,  opposed  the  establishment  of  a 
Postal  Telegraph. 

The  incredulity  with  which  Prof.  Morse’s  confident  assurances  were  re¬ 
ceived  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  the  reluctance  with  which  the  pitiful  sum 


■  «  36405 


2 


of  $30,000  was  finally  appropriated  by  our  National  Legislature  for  the  Balti¬ 
more  and  Washington  line,  are  now  causes  for  livelier  emotions  of  astonish¬ 
ment  than  are  created  by  reading  of  the  popular  indifference  and  contempt  to¬ 
wards  the  inventor  who  ultimately  achieved  great  success  in  any  other  depart¬ 
ments,  or  towards  other  philosophers  whose  discoveries  revolutionized  science 
and  art. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that,  as  near  as  we  can  ascertain,  the  invention  of 
which  we  speak  was  simultaneously  the  work  of  different  men  in  widely 
separated  countries.  But  it  is  certain  that  for  Prof.  Morse  the  claim  of  abso¬ 
lute  independence  and  originality  is  unimpeachable.  And  for  various  reasons 
the  civilized  world  appears  to  consent,  without  question,  to  his  pre-eminent 
credit  as  the  suggestor  and  the  practical  deviser  of  the  magnetic  telegraph. 

The  focus  of  our  discourse  to-night  guides  our  inquiry  and  our  statistical 
information  in  a  certain  channel,  within  which  we  must  try  and  keep  our 
words  ;  because  the  time  is  short,  and  we  feel  that  the  burden  of  the  message 
ought  to  lose  nothing  on  account  of  the  introduction  or  the  tolerance  of  matter 
irrelevant  to  the  issue. 

Immediately  upon  the  successful  inauguration  of  magnetic  telegraph 
communication  between  Washington  and  Baltimore,  there  was  a  period  of 
telegraphic  mania — of  wild  speculation  in  the  construction  of  lines  through¬ 
out  the  Eastern  States.  Within  the  following  year  the  principal  cities  of  the 
Northern  and  Atlantic  States  were  connected  by  the  intelligent  throbbing  wire. 
Within  two  years  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union  were  linked  together  by 
a  like  nerve  of  communication  ;  and  then  commenced  the  harvest  for  telegraph 
company  speculators.  Two  out  of  every  three  New  England  and  New  York 
villages  were  visited  by  enterprising  gentlemen  of  the  wooden-nutmeg  pedler 
style  of  biography,  who  announced  themselves  in  the  character  of  ‘‘tele¬ 
graph  constructors  ”  ;  and  who  proposed,  on  condition  that  a  certain  amount  of 
stock  was  subscribed  for  their  so-called  companies,  and  a  certain  amount  of 
clean  cash  paid  down  thereon,  to  bring  their  wire  into  the  town  and  connect 
the  hitherto  isolated  Podunk  with  New  York  or  Boston  by  the  instantaneous 
electric  flash.  The  offer  was  very  seductive.  You  and  I  remember  that  the 
most  miserly  inclined  inhabitant  relaxed  his  purse-strings  under  the  captivating 
representations  of  Sir  Plausible,  the  telegraph- builder  ;  while  the  proverbially 
public-spirited  portion  of  the  community,  in  not  a  few  instances,  tossed  their 
entire  saving  store  into  the  corporation  wallet. 

The  usual  result  was  as  follows :  The  wire  was  brought  into  town,  and  the 
clerk  who  attended  Sir  Plausible  in  the  van  of  construction,  on  the  opening 
night  Transmitted  a  series  of  salutatory  addresses  from  the  selectmen  or  town 
council  to  prominent  town  or  city  officers  along  the  route,  and  up  to  the  capi¬ 
tal  or  metropolitan  city  in  the  State.  This  was  glory  enough  for  one  day  ;  and 
the  second  or  third  installment  on  the  stock  (the  last  paid)  was  handed  over  on 
the  following  morning  by  the  enthusiastic  subscribers  at  Podunk  with  alacrity 
and  positive  delight. 

For  a  few  days,  and  until  the  edge  of  novelty  was  worked  off,  there  was 
considerable  patronage  from  the  sample  town  we  have  named.  And  very  likely 
the  close-fisted  farmer  or  squire,  as  he  began  to  take  thoroughly  sober  views  of 
his  investment,  judged  that  while  the  promised  twenty-five  per  cent,  per  an¬ 
num  might  be  rather  a  steep  calculation  of  the  dividend  for  the  first  year, 
twelve  or  fifteen  per  cent,  on  the  stock  (costing  not  over  seventy-five  cents) 
was  a  most  reasonable  expectation.  Now  some  of  you  remember  the  conclu¬ 
sion  of  the  business ;  and  others  will  suspect  in  advance  the  revelation  we  will 
have  to  make  to  them. 

In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  enterprise  proved  a  failure.  With  the  line 
flimsily  constructed  from  one  proposed  point  to  the  other,  and  with  the 
two,  three,  or  four  out  of  the  six  installments  of  the  capital  stock  paid  in, 
Sir  Plausible  took  his  departure  for  new  territory  and  fresh  dupes.  The  line 
did  not  pay.  It  was  left  with  hardly  a  shadow  of  management,  and  as  a 
physical  structure  as  well  as  a  financial  venture  it  went  to  the  ground  in  short 
order.  I  undertake  to  say  that  there  are  newspaper  men  in  this  country  who 
have  a  chronic  habit  of  mourning  over  the  losses  they  have  sustained  on  ac- 


3 


count  of  the  alleged  mismanagement  or  misrepresentation  concerning  mines 
on  this  coast,  who  themselves  in  connection  with  telegraph  companies  in  the 
East  have  defrauded  honest  folks  out  of  more  money  than  was  ever  sunk  by 
speculation  in  any  wild-cat  corporation  in  California  or  Nevada.  There  was 
a  heartless  fleecing  of  the  people  in  the  Eastern  States  by  these  telegraph  build¬ 
ers  ;  and  I  know  of  prominent  men  in  this  city  against  whom  to-day  there  are 
pending  in  Massachusetts  indictments  for  getting  money  under  false  pre¬ 
tenses,  through  the  very  machinery  I  have  described. 

It  was  tin  inauspicious  commencement  for  the  great  practical  art  and 
business  of  telegraphy.  And  naturally  enough — inevitably — there  was  begot¬ 
ten  a  popular  distrust  in  the  rural  districts,  of  everything  in  the  shape  of  tele¬ 
graph  stock  subscription.  And  hence  it  was  that  a  broad  foundation  was 
laid  for  the  most  gigantic  monopoly  of  the  land.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company. 

This  corporation  shall  have  its  due  share  of  credit  from  me  It  began 
operations  with  a  fair  proportion  of  capital  for  its  business.  Having  lines 
between  the  principal  cities,  on  direct  routes,  it  commenced  the  purchase  of 
the  old  dilapidated  material  which  passed  by  the  collective  name  of  “  a  tele¬ 
graph,”  connecting  side  and  subordinate  places.  Its  early  business  management 
was  systematic  and  judicious.  Its  stock  rose  legitimately  from  about  $400,000 
to  $4,000,000  ;  although  for  this  aggregate  there  were  many  so-called  lines 
included  at  their  original  cost,  which  were  not  worth  one-sixth  the  sum  named 
in  the  company’s  public  catalogue  of  assets.  It  was  claimed  that  the  purchases, 
up  to  this  amount,  were  actually  at  the  figures  set  down. 

B*ti^  from  this  aggregate,  the  process  of  purchase  and  water  inflation 
went  on  with  palpable  and  increasing  dishonesty  and  audacity  unto  the  latter 
portion  of  the  ledger  work. 

I  shall  assume  that  you  are  familiar  with  the  general  facts,  and  with 
some  few  details,  respecting  the  life  and  character  of  the  Western  Union  Tel¬ 
egraph  Company’s  Monopoly.  It  now  claims  [1875]  to  have  over  150,000  miles 
of  wire  in  the  United  States,  and  it  boasts  a  valuation  of  over  $40,000,000. 

THE  OUTRAGEOUS  IMPOSITIONS  OP  THE  WESTERN  UNION  TELEGRAPH  CO. 

In  order  that  you  may  realize  the  benefits  which  are  certain  to  flow  from 
the  establishment  of  a  Postal  Telegraph  in  this  country,  I  shall  name  with 
emphasis  some  of  the  outrageous  exactions  and  deceptions  which  are  in  the 
daily  record  of  this  tremendous  monopoly. 

In  the  first  place,  it  has  as  a  whole  the  most  poorly  constructed  lines  that 
were  ever  given  the  name  of  a  telegraph  in  any  country.  So,  when  its  man¬ 
agers  declare  that  they  could  not  do  the  business  which  a  Postal  Telegraph 
would  gather,  they  may  be  correct ;  but  correct  principally  on  account  of  the 
fact  that  their  material  or  mechanism  is  exceedingly  inferior  or  defective. 

They  claim  a  valuation  of  $40,000,000.  Competent  telegraph  engineers 
have  recently,  and  time  and  again,  formally  declared  that  better  lines  could  be 
constructed  for  less  than  $17,000,000 ;  one  of  the  most  careful  estimators — a 
millionaire  capitalist  of  Boston — placing  the  cost  of  a  good,  and  therefore  a 
better  set  of  lines,  at  not  more  than  $10,000,000.* 

Now  with  an  actual  investment  of  not  over  $20,000,000  at  the  outside,  this 
monopoly  extorts  from  the  people  a  yearly  revenue  equivalent  to  the  mininum 
sum  at  which  their  wires  and  poles  and  instruments  and  oflice  furniture  has 
been  valued  by  competent  appraisers. 

WHAT  IS  A  POSTAL  TELEGRAPH? 

What  are  the  actual  and  relative  advantages  which  it  proposes  and  will  in¬ 
sure  ?  In  what  manner  and  at  what  expense  is  it  proposed  to  establish  postal 
telegraphy  in  the  United  States  ? 

I  will  endeavor  to  give  you  some  clear,  succinct,  and  indisputable  replies 
to  these  inquiries,  which  I  trust  I  have  awakened  and  encouraged  in  the  minds 
of  many  citizens  of  California. 


*  Hon.  Gardiner  G.  Hubbard. 


4 


We  have  the  definition  of  Postal  Telegraphy  best  presented  in  a  sketch  of 
its  operations  in  other  countries. 

In  all  European  nations  at  the  present  time,  and  indeed  in  all  other  civil¬ 
ized  countries  except  the  United  States  and  the  Canadian  Dominion,  the  tele¬ 
graph  is  worked  as  a  government  institution.  It  has  always  been  so  on  the  con¬ 
tinent  of  Europe.  Quite  recently — and  here  we  have  our  great  example — the 
government  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  has  assumed  control  over  the  tele¬ 
graph  wires,  and  attached  the  same  to  their  post-offices,  and  made  all  the  post¬ 
stations  offices  of  the  Postal  Bureau.  , 

The  Postal  Telegraph  by  its  name  correctly  signifies  :  a  more  rapid  method 
of  sending  letters  by  the  government  mail  agents.  And  when  you  .shall  have 
reflected  upon  the  subject,  you  will  admit  intrinsic  cause  for  astonishment  at 
the  failure  of  our  own  or  any  government  to  adopt  this  method  of  transmitting 
the  communications  of  the  people  from  one  post-office  town  to  another. 

Until  very  recently,  the  newspapers  in  the  interest  of  the  Western  Union 
monopoly  contended  that  only  a  certain  class  of  business  communications  and 
correspondence  would  seek  the  celerity  of  the  telegraph.  The  experience  in 
Belgium  touched  and  tapped  this  pretense.  I  give  the  following  statistics, 
showing  the  increase  in  the  aggregate  and  in  certain  classes  of  dispatches,  con¬ 
sequent  on  the  reduction  of  rates. 

In  Belgium,  before  the  reduction  of  rates,  only  thirteen  per  cent,  of  the 
messages  related  to  private  or  social  matters.  Now,  fifty-nine  per  cent,  of  all 
messages  sent  in  Belgium  are  of  a  private  or  social  character.  This  demonstrates 
that  with  us  social  and  private  messages  are  not  more  generally  transmitted  by 
telegraph  because  the  rates  are  too  high.  Now  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
the  domestic  dispatches  exceed  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number.  Such  dis¬ 
patches  as  :  “  Coming  home  to  dinner  with  a  friend,”  “Will  you  go  to  opera 
to-night?”  etc. 

Witness  the  quotations  from  a  table  of  monthly  averages  of  different 
kinds  of  .messages  in  Belgium,  before  and  after  the  great  reductions  in  rates: 

In  1853,  when  the  tariff  was  high,  the  number  of  commercial  mes¬ 
sages  averaged  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  total  5,799  messages.  In  1868,  when 
tariff  was  reduced  fifty  per  cent.,  the  number  of  messages  rose  from  5,800  to 
over  100,000.  And  of  this  number  59  per  cent,  were  private  or  social.  The 
commercial  messages  increased  at  the  rate  of  ten  to  one ;  the  money  messages 
increased  to  the  rate  of  four  to  one  ;  the  press  and  Government  messages 
increased  to  the  ratio  of  fifteen  to  one  ;  while  the  private  or  social  messages 
increased  to  the  ratio  of  eighty  to  one.  Here  was  an  increase  of  over  90,000 
annual  messages  ;  and  of  this  number  the  private  or  social  messages,  which  in 
1853  had  been  754  out  of  5,800,  rose  to  over  60,000.  This  is  a  specimen  experi¬ 
ence  following  upon  the  reduction  of  rates  in  all  European  countries.  And  I 
refer  to  it  at  the  outset  of  my  statistical  notice,  as  a  warrant  for  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  the  topic  here,  especially — exhibiting  a  popular  patronage  so  soon  as 
the  prices  are  brought  within  a  reasonable  tariff  table. 

THE  BRITISH  POSTAL  TELEGRAPH. 

It  was  undoubtedly  owing  to  the  great  success  which  attended  the  efforts 
to  popularize  the  use  of  the  telegraph  in  Belgium,  that  Mr.  Ives  Scuddamore, 
of  London,  was  induced  to  inaugurate  systematic  and,  as  it  proved,  irresistible 
movements  toward  the  establishment  of  Postal  Telegraphy  throughout 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  He  commenced  his  labors  by  placing  before  the 
public,  in  newspaper  correspondence  and  in  a  variety  of  publications,  the  ben¬ 
efits  which  he  conceived  would  be  derived  by  his  countrymen  from  the  adop¬ 
tion  of  a  new,  uniform,  governmental  management  of  the  telegraph.  His 
first  publications  were  met  with  derision.  But  he  was  not  a  man  to  be  scoffed 
down  by  the  interested  parties  who  were  already  deriving  extraordinarily  large 
profits  from  the  existing  telegraph  companies.  He  persisted  in  his  publica¬ 
tions,  and  very  soon  obtained  the  cordial  support  of  many  influential  gentle¬ 
men  both  in  and  out  of  the  British  Parliament. 

And  now,  mark  you :  Mr.  Ives  Scuddamore  did  not  have  it  within  his 
province  to  say  that  he  was  battling  against  a  great  and  oppressive  monopoly. 


5 


As  compared  with  the  prices  for  telegraphy  under  which  our  people  are  ham¬ 
pered  and  plundered,  the  rates  of  the  English  companies  were  exceedingly 
low.  And  indeed,  the  great  argument  employed  by  Mr.  Scuddamore  was  uni¬ 
formity — uniformity  of  rates  ;  greater  regularity  in  the  workings  ;  and  closer 
proximity  to  the  people  in  the  several  districts  and  villages  and  hamlets,  by  a 
multiplication  of  offices  and  carriers. 

It  was  not  in  Mr.  Scuddamore’ s  original  programme,  that  rates  should  be  re¬ 
duced  immediately  between  some  of  the  principal  points  ;  although  a  large  ulti¬ 
mate  reduction  was  contemplated  and  promised,  and,  I  may  as  well  add,  antici- 
patingly,  has  been  obtained.  I  need  not  go  into  anything  of  detail  concerning 
the  history  of  this  movement  in  Great  Britain,  other  than  what  refers  directly 
to  the  objections  in  opposition  to  a  similar  movement  in  the  United  States  ; 
and  in  doing  this  we  have  to  sum  up,  very  briefly,  a  long  row  of  successes. 

The  general  objection  was  raised,  that  all  enterprises  of  this  character  are 
more  properly  conducted  within  the  domain  of  private  business  investment. 
The  reply  came  at  once  upon  the  first  principles :  Telegraphy  is  only  a  more 
‘rapid  method  of  transmitting  letters.  And  if  the  mail  department  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  has  proved  to  be  preferable  to  private  expressing,  then  there  is  really 
an  end  to  that  part  of  the  contest.  Mr.  Scuddamore  inquired — and  let  the 
question  be  put  before  our  own  people  to-day : — would  you  relinquish  your 
governmental  post-office  system  for  the  competition  of  private  expressing? 
The  question  gathers  still  stronger  emphasis  in  our  own  country.  It  was 
objected  that  there  would  be  enormous  and  wasteful  expenditure  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  in  assuming  and  managing  telegraph  lines.  But  it  was  replied,  that 
this  was  a  bold  accusation  in  advance  against  the  integrity  and  business  capacity 
of  the  gentlemen  who  did  or  who  would,  with  the  new  connections,  manage 
the  postal  bureau.  It  was  answered  still  further  by  an  aggressive  declaration  *> 
that  economy  would  necessarily  be  the  comparative  characteristic  in  the  man¬ 
agement  under  the  proposed  regime.  The  items  of  office-rent  and  messengers 
were  particularly  noticed  in  this  response.  [See  Appendix  A — very  important.] 

It  was  insisted  by  the  opponents  of  the  Reform — for  this  movement  is  more 
than  entitled  to  that  name — that  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  effort,  if  it  pro¬ 
ceeded  so  far  as  to  secure  a  trial  of  the  scheme,  would  be  a  great  burden  on  the 
habitual  patronage  of  the  telegraph,  on  account  of  theMeficient  accommoda¬ 
tions,  etc.,  and  a  tremendous  burden  on  the  kingdom,  —  to  meet  the  ex¬ 
penses  in  the  operating  of  the  several  lines.  Now  what  has  been  the  result 
of  the  movement  ?  You  have  read  a  hundred  times  in  the  San  Francisco  Alta 
and  Call  and  Bulletin ,  that  the  English  Postal  Telegraph  was  a  failure.  The 
people  of  this  city  have  been  congratulated  by  the  journals  I  have  named,  be¬ 
cause  our  government  had  not  adopted  a  similar  plan.  [See  Appendix  B.] 

The  English  Government  purchased  the  existing  telegraph  lines  at  a  very 
liberal  appraisement ;  and  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Scuddamore  immediately 
set  to  work  to  make  the  system  thoroughly  efficient  and  perfectly  satisfactory. 
It  was  not  expected  that  there  would  be  an  actual  profit  from  the  undertaking 
for  a  period  of  five  or  six  years.  Most  of  the  wires  that  were  purchased  ran 
along  the  line  of  the  railroad,  and  were  frequently  one,  two,  and  three  miles 
distant  from  large  towns  and  villages  named  as  on  the  railroad  route.  Branch 
lines  were  at  once  constructed  to  all  such  places  from  the  railroad  depot.  This 
involved  an  immediate  expenditure  of  some  £20,000  sterling.  But  the  en¬ 
hanced  accommodation  to  the  people  was  very  great ;  and  the  patronage  which 
by  this  means  alone  was  forthwith  obtained,  proved  within  six  months  to  be 
more  than  sufficient  to  meet  the  outlay  which  at  that  time  had  been  made  on 
this  account. 

When  the  government  assumed  the  control  of  the  lines  the  maximum 
charge  was  fixed  at  one  shilling  for  twenty  words.  [It  had  been  twice  that 
sum  ;  and  even  that  was  one-fourth  our  present  transcontinental  telegraph 
dispatch  charge  !]  Mr.  Scuddamore  had  said  that  he  believed  that  it  would 
prove  good  policy,  in  a  financial  point  of  view,  for  government  to  considera¬ 
bly  reduce  this  rate  within  a  year  from  the  date  pf  assuming  governmental 
control  of  the  wires  ;  and  he  made  the  prophecy  that  within  six  years  after 
assuming  control  of  the  telegraph  the  government  would  be  able,  with  an 


6 


assurance  of  a  margin  of  profit,  to  reduce  the  charge  of  twenty  words  to  so  low 
a  figure  as  sixpence. 

ASTONISHING  RESULTS. 

Now  let  me  state  in  a  sentence  the  more  astonishing  results.  Within  the 
first  twenty  months  the  government  actually  made  a  profit  on  the  capital  in¬ 
vested  of  £70,000  sterling  ;  when  there  was,  as  some  of  the  London  journals 
stated,  a  deficiency  expected  in  that  time  of  at  least  half  the  amount  which  I 
have  named.  And  the  fact  of  superior  accommodation  is  so  palpable  and  so 
great,  that  all  the  newspapers  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  which  originally 
scoffed  at  or  opposed  the  movement  are  now  making  loud  and  repeated  apologies 
to  its  progenitor — a  degree  of  candor  on  the  part  of  the  British  press  which  I 
hope  we  may  see  emulated  by  our  own  journals  a  few  years  hence,  when  we 
shall  be  rejoicing  at  a  similar  emancipation  and  convenience. 

There  is  no  qualification  to  the  success  of  the  English  Postal  Telegraph. 
There  was  infinitely  less  cause  for  its  origin  and  its  urging — as  I  shall  prove 
to  you — than  there  is  for  a  similar  change  and  establishment  in  the  United 
States.  As  an  example  it  is  perfect ;  as  an  argument  it  is  overwhelming.’ 
Let  us  see.  , 

HOW  THE  WESTERN  UNION  STOCK  HAS  BEEN  WATERED. 

The  "Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  is  one  of  the  greatest,  and  it  is 
the  most  exacting,  the  most  extortipnate,  the  most  corrupt  monopoly  in  our 
land.  I  have  given  it  all  due  credit.  At  least  as  early  as  1855  its  history  as 
a  swindle  began. 

Its  original  capital  was  $360,000.  This  was  watered  in  1855  and  1856  to 
twice  the  amount,  each  time;  and  the  capital  in  1857  was  $1,500,000.  In  1858, 
*this  was  again  watered  to  $3,000,000  In  1863,  it  was  again  watered  by  again 
doubling  the  number  of  shares  to  $6,000,000.  In  1864,  its  stock  was  further 
increased,  on  a  purchase  and  extension  of  lines,  $5,000,000,  making  $11,000,- 
000  in  all.  In  1864,  the  whole  stock  was  again  doubled  by  issue  to  stock¬ 
holders  of  an  exact  gift  of  $11,000,000,  in  stock  dividends.  This  would  make 
the  stock  amount  to  $22,000,000  ;  but  the  figures  of  the  Western  Union  Tele¬ 
graph  Company  are  $21,355,100*  During  1865,  the  stock  was  increased  by 
exchanges  to  $21,485,400.  In  1866,  the  stock  was  again  watered  $472,300  by 
an  issue  of  a  stock  dividend  ;  and  soon  after,  by  consolidation  with  the  U.  S. 
Telegraph  Company  and  by  issue  for  the  U.  S.  Pacific  lines,  further  increased 
$7,179,100 — making  $29,156,800.  In  1866,  by  stock  in  exchange  for  American 
Telegraph  Company’s  stock,  there  was  an  increase  of  $4,000,000;  and  by  a 
grand  watering  process — by  an  issue  of  stock  bonus  of  $7,818,800 — the  stock 
was  increased  $11,818,800,  making  it  $40,955,600.  The  length  of  their  line 
being  given  then  as  50,760  miles,  with  97,416  miles  of  wire.  [See  Appendix  C.] 

In  1869,  the  Company  proposed  a  sale  to  the  government — according  to 
the  statement  of  some  of  their  organs — in  case  they  could  not  prevent  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  a  Postal  Telegraph  measure — they  proposed  a  sale  for  $80,000,000. 
At  that  time  there  was  really  not  $15,000,000  of  capital  actually  invested  in 
their  whole  concern  ;  and  good  lines  could  have  been  constructed  on  all  their 
routes,  with  the  same  amount  of  wire,  for  $10,000,000  or  less. 

You  remember  the  completion  of  the  overland  line  in  1861  ?  Cyrus  W. 
Field  declared  that  the  receipts  on  that  line  for  one  year  paid  the  cost  of  con¬ 
struction.  The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.,  for  itself  and  by  inheritance, 
has  received  direct  from  the  Federal  government  and  from  the  State  of  Cali¬ 
fornia,  bonus  sufficient  to  pay  for  the  entire  cost  of  constructing  the  “  over¬ 
land  line  !  ’  ’  And  yet  you  have  to  pay  $2  for  a  ten  word  message  from 
here  to  New  York.* 

Since  this  matter  of  Postal  Telegraph  was  agitated  in  a  lively  manner  in 
this  State,  the  monopoly  has  systemized  and  reduced  its  rates  somewhat ;  and 
there  is  a  shadow  of  a  shade  of  competition  between  it  and  the  railroad  line,f 


♦For  several  years  the  ten-word  tariff  was  $5.  And  before  that,  $7.50. 
t  Now  no  more  in  competition  ! 


7 


the  latter  being  built  absolutely  with  the  money  of  the  people,  in  like  manner 
as  its  predecessor. 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  all  the  particulars  of  extortion  which  should  hare 
been  manifest  to  you  all,  long  ago.  But  I  wish,  before  I  speak  of  the  remedy, 
to  solicit  notice  for  some  other  matters  of  broader  significance.  The  present 
telegraph  monopoly  stands  in  the  path  of  legitimate  newspaper  enterprise. 
[See  Appendix  D.] 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.  has  a  twin  connection  with 
ANOTHER  INCORPORATED  THIEF  AND  HIGHWAY  ROBBER,  KNOWN  AS  THE 
ASSOCIATED  PRESS. 

They  are  banded  together  in  the  strong  bond  of  mutual  work  of  plunder 
and  rapacity  against  the  people. 

As  a  business  man,  in  the  market  sense  of  the  term,  or  as  an  intelligent, 
active  citizen,  you  wish  to  obtain  the  news  of  the  day  at  as  early  an  hour  as 
possible.  Now  you  must  take  the  associated  press  newspapers  into  your  count¬ 
ing-rooms  or  your  houses,  in  order  to  obtain  the  latest  intelligence  by  tele¬ 
graph.  And  you  have  forced  upon  you  and  your  household,  journals  published 
by  some  of  the  meanest  specimens  of  mankind, — simply  on  this  account,  and  by 
this  process. 

The  legitimate  and  honest  workers,  possessed  of  the  education  of  printers 
and  journalists,  have  comparatively  small  prospect  of  success  in  their  endeav¬ 
ors  to  establish  a  new  and  worthily  edited  paper  in  our  midst.  The  shame 
which  belongs  to  this  condition  of  affairs  is  grievous  and  undeniable. 

But  there  is  more  than  this. 

It  has  been  often  asked  why  the  prices  for  telegraphing  overland  are  not 
reduced,  if  it  is  the  fact  that  the  profits  would  be  equal  or  greater  under  a  lower 
tariff.  I  will  explain.  If  instead  of  your  being  required  to  pay  $2.00  for  a* 
ten-word  message  from  here  to  New  York,  twenty-five  cents  only  was  de¬ 
manded  for  that  service,  the  revenue  to  the  Company  would  within  a  year  be 
largely  increased  from  that  source.  It  is 

THE  ILLEGITIMATE  PROFITS 

Which  induce  the  Company  more,  perhaps,  than  anything  else  to  adhere  to  its 
present  high  figures. 

The  tolls  are  too  high  for  every  merchant  and  every  broker  to  have  his 
dispatches  in  cipher.  So,  the  Company’s  ring  maintains  for  itself  an  exclusive 
knowledge  (for  hours,  and  for  days  if  necessary)  of  the  fluctuation  of  prices 
of  money,  of  wool,  of  wheat,  of  hides,  and  of  other  sample  commodities.  I 
give  you  a  specimen  illustration. 

In  the  spring  of  1869,  the  coal-oil  refining  works  at  Hunter’s  Point,  near 
the  city  of  Brooklyn,  N  Y.,  were  destroyed  by  fire.  At  that  time,  the  S.  E. 
Herald  was  receiving  500  words  daily  in  cipher  (amounting  to  2,500  words, 
when  the  sentences  were  extended).  The  Herald  published  the  tidings  on  the 
morning  succeeding  the  conflagration.  Of  course,  by  reason  of  the  dispatches 
coming  in  cipher,  the  telegraph  managers  did  not  know  that  the  Herald  had 
this  news  until  they  read  it  in  that  paper,  to  their  sorrow,  during  the  succeed¬ 
ing  day.  It  transpired  that  early  in  the  forenoon  of  that  day  on  which  the 
Herald  published  this  dispatch,  every  wholesale  merchant  and  many  retail  mer¬ 
chants  in  this  city  that  dealt  in  coal  oil,  were  approached  with  an  offer  to 
purchase  their  oil  stock  at  the  maximum  figure  of  the  day  preceding.  Every 
such  merchant  who  was  accustomed  to  read  the  Herald ,  and  who  did  read  its 
dispatches  on  that  morning,  saved  a  large  profit  for  himself  by  declining  this 
offer.  The  coal-oil  works  at  Hunter’s  Point  supplied  most  pf  the  refined  arti¬ 
cle  for  this  Coast  at  that  time. 

It  was  estimated  by  a  competent  commercial  reporter  that  on  the  occasion 
to  which  I  have  referred,  the  Herald  cheated  the  telegraph  monopoly  ring  out 
of  not  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  !  This  probably  intensified  the 
animosity  of  that  monopoly  towards  a  paper  from  which  it  exacted  fifteen 
cents  a  word  for  press  dispatches,  while  it  furnished  the  S.  E.  Bulletin  and 
Alta,  and  Sacramento  Union  with  news  matter  at  the  rate  of  half  a  cent  a 
word  for  each  paper. 


8 


Is  it  not  an  extortionist  and  a  swindler  ?  Why  should  not  every  merchant 
in  San  Francisco  be  able  to  have  his  private  market  dispatches,  as  do  the  mer¬ 
chants  and  brokers  in  Europe  ?  And  have  I  not  probably  given  you  one 
instance  out  of  ten  thousand  ?  And  may  they  not  manufacture  reports  of 
prices  ?  Is  not  your  market  of  staples  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  this  monop¬ 
oly  ?  May  they  not  mislead  our  farmers  and  commission  merchants  for  days 
and  weeks  as  to  the  prices  of  grain  in  the  East  and  in  Europe  ?  The  efforts  of 
this  very  same  monopoly  to  break  up  the  business  of  an  honest  broker  in  Cin¬ 
cinnati,  show  that  my  interrogations  are  founded  on  facts.  [See  Appendix  E.] 

An  iniquity  less  personal  but  wider  in  its  range  and  aplication  is  yet  to 
be  noticed.  This  monopoly  has 

STOOD  IN  THE  PATHWAY  OP  SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 
And  practical  improvement  in  the  art.  It  has  discouraged  and  prevented  the 
adoption  of  numerous  and  extensive  improvements  in  telegraphy,  long  ago 
brought  into  practical  service  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  and  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  It  is  a  fact  that  a  large  number  of  valuable 
inventions  have  been  perfected  in  this  country,  with  the  expectation  on  the 
part  of  the  inventor  that  they  would  be  gladly  taken  up  by  the  great  organi¬ 
zation  which  virtually  controls  telegraphy  in  the  United  States.  In  numer¬ 
ous  instances  inventors  have  been  assured  from  the  office  of  this  Company  that 
there  was  no  merit  in  the  patent  offered  or  proposed  ;  and  hence  the  caveat 
was  not  followed  by  the  completing  papers  for  a  patent  right,  or  the  patent 
was  purchased  by  some  .agent  of  the  Company  for  a  mere  pittance,  and  con¬ 
cealed  and  absolutely  suppressed  in  that  manner.  * 

To  show  how  far  we  have  been  kept  behind  the  age  I  will  give  an  instance. 
Telegraphing  simultaneously  in  opposite  directions  on  the  same  wire  has  been 
practiced  in  Europe  and  by  the  English  operators  in  India  for  ten  years  past. 

And  yet,  in  the  year  1874,  one  of  the  Associated  Press  papers  in  this  city  de¬ 
scribed  the  method  as  a  new  invention,  about  to  be  utilized  by  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  ! 

By  the  method  of  duplex  and  quadruplex  telegraphing  the  expenses  of  a 
line,  enjoying  a  large  and  pressing  patronage,  may  be  very  materially  reduced. 

The  Western  Union  Company  have  rarely  procured  and  put  in  operation 
the  best  style  of  instruments,  except  it  was  under  the  stimulus  of  a  temporary 
but  a  real  and  active  competition.  That  you  may  not  suspect  I  am  unsup¬ 
ported  in  these  assertions — and  time  forbids  the  full  statements  which  I  would 
otherwise  make — I  will  beg  your  patience  for  one  or  two  quotations  from  the 
very  highest  authorities,  directly  bearing  on  this  point.  [See  Appendix  F.] 

Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne  declares  as  follows  :  “  The  telegraph  has  made  less 
progress  towards  perfection,  and  has  been  practically  of  less  value  to  the 
masses  of  the  people  in  our  country  than  in  any  other  civilized  country  on  the  • 

globe.”  Mr.  Gardiner  E.  Hubbard  declares  that  the  reason  why  the  new 
automatic  telegraph,  which  admits  of  dispatching  at  the  rate  of  five  hundred 
word 8  per  minute  at  least,  is  not  in  use  in  this  country,  is  because  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  managers  have  persistently  refused  its  introduction  on  their 
own  lines,  while  claiming  patentee  rights  acquired  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
frighten  competing  companies  from  an  attempt  to  put  it  or  continue  it  in  oper¬ 
ation.  [See  Appendix  H.] 

And  now,  my  friends,  the  question  is  at  this  moment :  Is  there  an  effectual 
remedy  for  the  evils  and  burdens  of  which  we  complain  ?  If  so,  what  is  that 
remedy  ?  It  is  legislative ; 

IT  IS  THE  POSTAL  TELEGRAPH.  r 

Such  a  measure  ought  to  be  passed,  I  submit,  at  the  next  session  of  Congress. 

We  can  all  contribute  something  towards  the  securing  of  so  desirable  an  ob- 


*  Since  this  lecture  was  delivered  the  W.  U.  Tel.  Co.  have  found  it  to  their  interest  to 
bring  one  or  two  inventors  into  their  employ, — with  the  intention  of  preventing  anyone  else 
from  utilizing  some  inventions  to  the  possible  great  disadvantage  of  the  monopoly.  At  ope 
time  Prescott  and  Edison  were  not  friends  of  the  W.  U.  T.  Co.,  and  the  former  expressed  simi¬ 
lar  views  to  those  here  given  as  to  the  suppression  of  inventions,  etc. 


9 


ject.  All  the  papers  in  this  city  and  in  this  State,  which  are  not  in  partnership 
with  the  Associated  Press  or  bound  to  the  batteries  of  the  Western  Union  Mo¬ 
nopoly,  should  lend  their  earnest  efforts  in  this  direction. 

Why  should  you  pay  two  dollars  for  a  dispatch  from  here  to  the  Eastern 
States  ?  This  overland  line,  the  original  line  from  Sacramento  to  Omaha  or 
St.  Joseph,  has  been  paid  for  by  the  State  and  Federal  Government.  If  the 
Postal  Telegraph  was  adopted  and  the  price  of  a  ten- word  message  from  here  to 
New  York  reduced  to  thirty  cents — which  is  twice  as  much  as  it  would  be 
soon  after  a  Postal  Telegraph  was  fairly  established — with  a  provision  for  night 
messages  at  the  rate  of  one  cent  per  word,  in  how  many  thousands  of  instances 
would  this  glorious  invention  be  patronized,  where  the  tardy  mail  now  has  to 
be  depended  upon  ?  * 

My  friends,  this  glorious  invention  was  vouchsafed  to  mankind,  that  we 
might  salute  and  converse  with  one  another  respectively  stationed  at  remote 
and  isolated  points  for  a  nominal  sum.  A  wicked  monopoly  has  seized  hold 
of  this  beneficent  capacity  and  design,  and  made  it  tributary,  by  exorbitant 
tariffs,  to  a  most  miserly  and  despicable  greed. 

COMPETITION  WILL.  NOT  AVAIL. 

Experience  has  shown  this.  There  will  be  momentary  and  partial  relief 
under  competition,  and  then  a  return  under  the  dominion  of  the  devil  of  ex¬ 
tortion  more  outrageous  and  relentless  than  before.  One  straight  blow  of  legis¬ 
lation,  and  the  Reform  is  inagurated,  established, — rendered  as  enduring  as 
the  Republic  itself. 

Our  eyes  have  been  scarcely  lifted  from  the  newspaper  page  on  which 
was  printed  (to  rouse  our  righteous  anger  and  action)  violent  denunci¬ 
ations  of  monopoly.  And  yet  the  very  journals  that  yesterday  pleaded  with 
you  and  me  against  extortionate  corporations  owe  their  relative  and  over¬ 
shadowing  prosperity  to  the  fact  that  they  are  either  partners  or  proteges  of 
the  most  iniquitous  and  intolerable  and  burdensome  monopoly  that  ever  cursed 
our  land.  Legitimate  business  enterprises,  mercantile  pursuits,  the  advance¬ 
ment  of  our  people  in  the  domain  of  science  and  the  practical  arts,  reasonable 
personal  convenience,  the  enhancement  of  social  and  domestic  pleasures  and 
affections,  have  all  been  brought  under  the  heel  of  this  UNPARALLELED 
MONOPOLY. 

The  truths  in  regard  to  the  matter  have  been  and  now  are  studiously  and  per¬ 
sistently  suppressed,  and  falsehoods  the  most  unblushing,  and  prevarications  the 
most  contemptible,  have  been  and  now  are  regularly  resorted  to  by  the  church¬ 
going,  psalm-singing,  prayer-mouthing  hypocrites  that  run  the  Associated 
Press  in  this  city  ;  in  order  to  conceal  from  the  people  the  light  of  liberty  and 
privilege  which  shows  what  belongs  to  us  all  from  the  boon  of  Telegraphy . 

There  is  no  more  sense  or  reason  in  your  paying  $2.00  for  a  ten-word 
message  from  this  city  to  New  York  than  there  would  be  in  requiring  a  dollar 
stamp  to-morrow  on  every  half-ounce  letter  by  mail.  There  is  no  more  per¬ 
sonal  propriety  in  the  howl  of  the  Associated  Press  papers,  or  any  of  them,  about 
a  railroad  monopoly,  than  there  would  be  propriety  in  Vanderbilt  instituting 
a  newspaper  campaign  against  the  telegraph  monopoly.  And  the  reason  why 
this  city  is  cursed  to-day  beyond  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  globe  with  exist¬ 
ing  and  corporation  extortions  is  because  the  leading  press  for  the  last  twelve 
years  has  maintained  its  general  and  excluding  circulation,  and  consequent 
power  and  authority,  by  means  of  the  INFAMOUS  combination  which  has  been 
the  topic  of  my  discourse  this  evening. 

There  can  be  generated  in  a  lady’s  thimble  a  battery-power  sufficient  to 
telegraph  your  letters  to-night,  instantaneously,  to  an  Atlantic  city.  The 
cost  of  the  acids  is  nominal ;  and  the  compound  resulting  from  the  battery 
used  has  sometimes  been  sold  for  more  than  the  cost  of  the  original  simples. 
[Appendix  G.] 

In  Switzerland  and  in  France,  and  in  all  the  monarchical  governments  of 
Europe,  a  citzen  or  a  subject  can  telegraph  from  one  end  of  his  country  to  the 
other — be  the  same  great  or  small — for  from  six  to  twelve  cents  a  message  of 
twenty  words,  exclusive  of  address  and  signature.  In  all  those  countries,  the 


10 


material — wires,  poles,  and  instruments — are  superior  by  fifty  per  cent,  of  cost, 
and  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  intrinsic  worth.  And  yet  every  one  of  those 
telegraph  lines  yields  a  very  large  net  revenue  to  the  government. 

By  means  of  the  automatic  telegraph,  every  citizen  in  Europe  can  tele¬ 
graph  a  letter  or  other  document  at  press  rates  during  certain  night-hours — 
not  over  half  a  cent  per  word.  Such  a  privilege  should  be  connected  with  our  ^ 

Postal  Telegraph. 

The  very  fact  of  increased  distances  renders  this  method  of  communication 
vastly  more  desirable  in  this  country. 

A  convenience  which  cannot  be  measured  by  my  words  to-night  should  be 
within  the  call  of  every  citizen  who  can  now  afford  the  patronage  of  a  street 
car  or  the  recreation  of  the  society  excursion.  ,  And  ultimately,  as  the  people 
become  accustomed  to  its  use,  it  may  be  expected  to  supersede  the  letter  by 
mail.  With  the  simple  disguise  of  a  cipher,  the  message  of  business,  or  the 
letter  of  the  maiden  to  her  lover,  can  be  conveyed  more  secure  from  prying 
eyes  than  it  is  to-day  under  the  chances  of  misdirection,  careless  mail-sifting, 
and  the  accidents  of  railway  and  steamer  travel. 

A  multitude  of  arguments  and  anticipations  rise  up  in  behalf  of  this  great 
reform,  and  beg  for  utterance.  Above  all :  the  demand  for  a  FREE  press, 
conducted  by  honest  men,  is  the  sternest  emphasis  in  the  cry  and  the  chorus 
for  a  Postal  Telegraph  jubilee  and  era  in  these  United  States  of  America. 


( 


APPENDIX  A. 


Some  prominent  men  who  have — at  a  not  very  remote  date — come  out  of  the 
old  Whig  Party  into  the  Democratic  fold,  have  signalized  their  advent  by  a 
fanaticism  of  speech  against  what  they  term  “  a  paternal  Government.”  For 
two  or  three  of  these  men  I  have  great  personal  respect.  Their  “  revulsion  ” 
from  Protection  doctrines  and  Paternalism  in  Government  is  sincere,  and  has 
flung  them  to  extremities  of  political  advocacy  where  they  do  not  appreciate 
their  illogical  and  impracticable  position.  For  most  of  these  men  I  have  a  not 
very  well  disguised  contempt.  They  occupy  high  places  ;  but  they  are  never¬ 
theless  ignorant  and  venal — both  of  which  adjectives  they  earn  for  themselves 
by  their  speech,  and  their  notorious  companionships  and  intimacies. 

As  I  have  very  recently  had  occasion  to  illustrate  :  Suppose  serial  naviga¬ 
tion  should  be  suddenly  perfected.  Suppose  air-cars  should  be  invented  that 
would  easily  and  safely  make  the  trip  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York  in  one 
day.  And  then  suppose  that  some  one  had  the  effrontery  to  suggest  that  the 
mails  be  sent  by  the  same  route  taken  by  the  passengers?  And  the  reply 
should  come  :  “  Why,  no  !  The  Government  has  a  contract  with  Stanford  & 
Gould  for  the  transportation  of  the  mails  by  railroads,  and  the  six-days’  trans¬ 
continental  trip  is  sufficiently  rapid.  Besides,  to  shift  the  mail-carrying  from 
the  cars  on  land  to  the  cars  in  air  would  be  adopting,  in  the  Postal  Depart¬ 
ment,  a  Paternal  Government  policy.”  How  absurd  ! 

This  cry  of  A  Paternal  Government  as  against  Postal  Telegraphy  is  a 
cheat.  I  am  sorry  that  some  good  Democrats  have  been  swept  into  echoing  the 
cry,  before  they  had  time  to  study  and  reflect  upon  the  subject. 

We  are  entitled  to  claim  for  Postal  Telegraphy  in  this  country,  good  origi¬ 
nal  Democratic,  suggestion  and  argument  and  outline. 

In  1846,  Hon.  Cave  Johnson,  Postmaster-General,  made  a  report  from 
which  I  extract  the  subjoined  : 

“  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  bring  to  your  notice  the  fact  that  the  subject  of 
telegraphic  communications  in  their  fullest  extent,  as  made  available  by  means 
of  this  extraordinary  invention,  (Morse’s  Telegraph)  is  forcing  itself  upon  the 
public.  The  proprietors  of  the  patent,  securing  the  exclusive  use  of  the  tele¬ 
graph,  have,  since  the  last  Congress,  taken  the  most  active  measures  to  estab¬ 
lish  lines  of  communication  between  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union.  Their 
success  will  introduce  a  means  of  communicating  intelligence  amply  sufficient 
for  a  great  variety  of  purposes,  and  greatly  superior  in  dispatch  to  the  public 
mails,  and  must  secure  to  itself  much  of  the  business  that  has  heretofore  been 
transacted  through  them,  and  to  that  extent  diminish  the  revenue  of  the  De¬ 
partment. 

“  It  becomes  then  a  question  of  great  importance  how  far  the  Government 
will  allow  individuals  to  divide  with  it  the  business  of  transmitting  intelli¬ 
gence — an  important  duty  confided  to  it  by  the  Constitution — necessarily  and 
properly  exclusive.  Or  will  it  purchase  the  telegraph  and  conduct  its  opera¬ 
tions  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  P******** 

“  In  the  hands  of  individuals  or  associations  the  telegraph  may  become  the 
most  potent  instrument  the  world  ever  knew  to  effect  sudden  and  large  specu¬ 
lations  [what  a  mantle  of  prophecy  was  on  the  old  Democratic  Postmaster- 
General,  of  Polk’s  Council,  when  he  wrote  this !]  ;  to  rob  the  many  of  their 
just  advantages  and  concentrate  them  upon  the  few.  If  permitted  by  the 
Government  to  be  thus  held,  the  public  can  have  no  security  that  it  will  not 
be  wielded  for  their  injury  rather  than  their  benefit.  *  *  *  *  * 

“  Its  importance  to  the  public  does  not  consist  in  any  probable  income  that 
can  ever  be  derived  from  it,  but  as  an  agent  vastly  superior  to  any  other  ever 
devised  by  the  genius  of  man  for  the  diffusion  of  intelligence,  which  may  be 
accomplished  with  almost  the  rapidity  of  light  to  any  part  of  the  Republic. 
Its  value  in  all  commercial  transactions  to  individuals  having  the  control  of  it 
could  not  be  overestimated. 


12 


“  The  use  of  an  instrument  so  powerf  ul  for  good  or  evil  cannot  with  safety 
to  the  people  he  left  in  the  hands  of  private  individuals  uncontrolled  by  lavj.,} 

Every  word  of  prophetic  import  in  the  above  extract  from  a  Report  of  the 
Democratic  Postmaster-General  of  Polk’s  Cabinet,  has  been  met  in  the  solemn 
and  afflictive  fact  of  experience  during  the  past  fifteen  years. 

The  fact  that  forty  or  fifty  thousand  young  men  and  women,  boys  and 
girls,  would  be  ultimately  brought  into  the  service  of  the  Government  by  the 
adoption  of  a  Postal  Telegraph  system  is  another  ground  for  opposition  by  the 
men  whom  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  Managers  and  the  Asso¬ 
ciated  Press  Managers  laud  in  their  dispatches  to  the  press.  There  are  many 
conclusive,  and  as  it  seems  to  me,  very  evident  ways  of  answering  this  point 
of  hostility.  If  Telegraphy  is  that  which  Cave  Johnson  said  it  would  prove 
to  be,  if  it  is  that  which  all  experience  in  Europe  has  shown  it  to  be,  then  it 
should  be  utilized  as  a  Government  institution,  or  our  whole  mail  carrying 
system  should  be  done  away  with.  It  should  be  what  it  was  intended  to  be — 
a  more  rapid  letter-carrier.  And  whatever  force  is  necessary  to  conduct  the 
business  of  Postal  Telegraphy  should  be  employed.  I  think  it  is  an  argument 
for  the  system — this  particular  “  objection.”  Here  would  be  employment,  in 
a  Department  that  ought  to  be,  for  thousands  of  skilled  workmen  ;  and  a  proper 
Civil  Service  Reform  would  necessarily  be  inaugurated  in  the  business  of 
National  Government,  so  far  as  this  Department  was  concerned.  Inevitably  so. 


“  If  there  was  one  subject  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  conceived 
the  Government  should  have  control  of  more  than  another,  it  was  that  relat¬ 
ing  to  the  transmission  of  intelligence.  As  early  as  1775,  in  the  Revolutionary 
Congress,  before  we  had  any  Constitution,  before  we  had  a  right  to  a  position 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  this  subject  was  brought  to  the  attention  of 
Congress  by  the  following  resolutions.  On  the  25th  of  May,  1775,  Congress 
declared : 

‘  ‘  ‘  As  the  present  critical  situation  of  the  Colonies  renders  it  highly  necessary 
that  ways  and  means  for  speedy  and  secure  conveyance  of  intelligence  from 
one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other, 

“  ‘  Hesolved :  That  Mr.  Franklin  and  others  be  a  committee  to  consider  the 
best  means  of  establishing  posts  for  conveying  letters  and  intelligence  through¬ 
out  the  continent.’ 

“  And  in  1782  an  ordinance  was  passed  establishing  the  Post  Office  Depart¬ 
ment,  which  utilized  every  means  then  existing,  which  had  for  its  object 
the  transmission  of  intelligence.  It  is  true  that  at  that  time  the  country  was 
new  ;  we  had  not  advanced  in  science ;  the  lightning  of  heaven  had  not  been 
utilized  for  the  purpose  of  serving  the  interests  of  man  ;  but  the  simple 
machinery  of  the  stage-coach,  and  the  ordinary  post-road  was  taken  up  by 
Congress  and  employed  for  the  purpose  of  transmitting  intelligence  through¬ 
out  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country,  and  posts  were  established,  as  his¬ 
tory  tells  us,  from  Maine  to  Savannah,  and  every  means  was  adopted  by  the 
Government  to  facilitate  the  transmission  of  intelligence  among  the  people. 

“  At  the  time  our  Constitution  was  adopted  we  had  no  steamships  ;  we  had 
none  of  the  fast-sailing  vessels  that  ply  the  ocean  at  the  present  time ;  and  yet 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  words  that  we  find  in  the  Constitution  giving  to 
Congress  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  take  within  their  scope  every  means 
of  commerce  which  the  ingenuity  of  man  has  been  able  to  devise.  The  steam 
vessels  stand  upon  the  same  footing  as  the  old  hulks  of  former  days.  The 
magnificent  cutter  that  makes  ten  or  fifteen  knots  an  hour  falls  within  the 
same  principle  that  regulates  the  slow-motion  vessel  of  former  days.  And  no¬ 
body  will  pretend  to  say  that  because  by  experience  and  ingenuity  and  mechan¬ 
ical  power  we  have  improved  the  means  and  methods  of  commerce,  this  consti¬ 
tutional  power  in  regard  to  that  subject  will  not  take  them  all  in.  Will 
anybody  pretend  to  say  that  if  the  telegraph  had  existed  at  the  time  our  Con¬ 
stitution  was  adopted  it  would  not  have  been  taken  up  by  the  Government  and 
utilized  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  ?  Everything  that  we  are  able  to  know 
on  this  subject  by  analogy  teaches  us  that  it  would.” — Hon.  Charles  W.  Jones, 
Democratic  U.  S.  Senator  from  Florida.  From  Speech  Delivered  February 
21s£,  1879. 


From  the  Report  of  the  Postmaster  General  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  for  1878.— The  last  page.— Mark  the  Net  Revenue.— In  the  face  of 


13 


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APPENDIX  C. 


It  is  an  old  trick  of  the  agents  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.  to 
misreport  lecturers  or  testimony  on  the  subject  of  Postal  Telegraphy,  and 
then  parade  a  dozen  paragraphs  of  contradiction.  That  trick  has  been  re¬ 
peatedly  played  against  me.  One  paper  would  misreport  the  facts  and  figures 
1  gave,  and  then  another  one  of  the  monopoly’s  organs  would  come  out  with 
a  long  communication  from  some  one  of  the  flunkies  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company,  (anonymous  communication,  of  course,)  challenging 
and  correcting  the  statements  falsely  attributed  to  me. 

I  recently  tried  to  reply  to  such  a  communication  in  the  Call ,  in  which 
paper  appeared  the  arraigning  letter  from  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.’s 
office  ;  but  my  very  mild  disclaimer  was  not  allowed  to  appear  in  that  cat¬ 
footed  monopoly  journal. 

I  should  mention  that  I  offered  in  that  rejected  communication  to  meet 
Mr.  James  Gamble,  or  any  respectable  representative  of  the  Telegraph  Com¬ 
pany  he  might  name,  in  any  public  hall  in  this  city,  and  discuss  the  question 
of  Postal  Telegraphy  before  an  audience.  I  suggested  that  he  could  then 
expose  my  ignorance  and  exhibit  his  enlightenment,  to  my  shame  and  the 
triumph  of  his  corporation,  in  an  argumentative  sense — or  otherwise  ? 

But  my  letter  of  disclaimer  and  aggressive  propositions  was  not  printed 
in  the  Call , — that  now-a-days  “champion  of  the  workingmen!”  [good  Lord 
deliver  us !] — that  crawling,  sneaking,  lying  pismire  of  San  Francisco  mo¬ 
nopoly  newspapers,  the  Morning  Call. 

The  real  hostility  of  this  company’s  organs  to  the  interest  of  the  laboring 
man,  should  be  noted  in  this  appendix.  The  Call  and  Bulletin  frequently 
print  tables  of  wages  of  labor  in  Europe,  with  an  evident  purpose  to  justify 
and  encourage  monopoly  employers  in  California  in  reducing  the  wages  of 
labor  here.  Of  course,  wages  of  labor  are  higher  here  than  in  Europe,  and 
they  ought  to  remain  so.  The  Call ,  more  particularly,  is  always  complaining 
of  high  wages  in  official  stations, — knowing  that  reduction  of  wages  there 
means,  inevitably,  reduction  of  wages  in  corporation  employment. 


APPENDIX  D. 

• 

To  what  is  to  be  attributed  the  fact  that  there  is  no  first-class  morning 
Democratic  paper  in  San  Francisco  ?  Certainly  it  is  a  surprising  fact ; — so 
mentioned  by  strangers ;  so  conceded  by  a  majority  of  our  people.  Here  is  a 
city  of  350,000  inhabitants,  situated  by  bay-waters  around  whose  shores  four 
other  cities  and  ten  towns  of  considerable  size  are  also  located.  In  the  aggre¬ 
gate  of  city  and  vicinity  population,  no  doubt  ten  thousand  heads  of  families 
would  rejoice  to  welcome  on  their  doorsteps  each  morning  a  sterling  Democratic 
paper  of  San  Francisco  print. 

The  dispatches  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  and  the  Asso¬ 
ciated  Press  are  in  the  interest  of  the  party  which  the  Western  Union  Tele¬ 
graph  Company  and  the  railroad  monopolies  own — the  Republican  Party.  And 
the  more  we  think  upon  it  the  more  the  wonder  grows.  Why  is  there  not  a 
good  Democratic  morning  daily  in  San  Francisco  ? 

Many  competent  persons  have  studied  for  causes. 

The  first  and  principal  reason  is,  that  intelligent  Democrats  of  means 
know  full  well  that  if  they  should  combine  to  start  an  excellent  Democratic 
newspaper  and  thoroughly  Democratic  journal,  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  soon  after  the  first  issue  of  such  a  daily,  would  begin  the  publication 
here  of  a  so-called  Democratic  paper  that  would  be  as  much  subject  to  the  editorial 
dictation  of  the  lawyers  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  as  is  the  Record-Union 


15 


or  the  Bulletin  or  Call  or  Alta ,  And  money  would  be  poured  out  like  water 
to  give  the  railroad  and  telegraph  monopoly  “  Democratic  ”  organ  superior 
advantages  as  a  local  newspaper,  and — so  far  as  possible  and  consistent  with  the 
freezing-out  plan  in  view — unrivaled  excellence  as  a  telegraph  dispatch  news¬ 
paper. 

So  it  is  that  when  appeals  are  made  to  genuine  Democrats  of  wealth,  who 
really  wish  to  have  a  true  party  daily  in  San  Francisco,  the  reply  often  comes : 
“What’s  the  use  in  throwing  away  money  on  such  a  project?  Stanford 
&  Co.  would  set  up  an  opposition  daily  ‘  democratic  ’  paper — leaving  the  anti¬ 
railroad  and  anti-telegraph  monopoly  part  out — in  less  than  a  month  after  the 
first  daily  issue  of  your  proposed  journal.” 


If  we  had  a  Postal  Telegraph  there  could  be  procured  such  full  and 
accurate  dispatches  from  original  sources  that  honest  Democratic  editors  and 
publishers  in  San  Francisco  would  make  a  success  of  such  an  enterprise  as  is 
referred  to — for  which  there  is  such  supreme  moral  demand  in  the  State  of  Cal¬ 
ifornia — in  spite  of  railroad  monopoly  “Democratic”  competition  for  Demo¬ 
cratic  patronage. 

As — I  may  remark  incidentally — as  I  have  elsewhere  argued — it  would  be 
vastly  to  the  advantage  of  our  communities  if  we  had  political  party-papers  in 
place  of  blackmail  “  Independent  ”  journals  that  prefer  democracy  or  confess 
(true  admission)  radicalism,  according  as  it  suits  the  mercenary  purposes  of 
the  cold-blooded,  principleless  managers. 

Above  all  other  curse  of  curses,  the  State  of  California  (and  especially  the 
city  of  San  Francisco)  has  been  afflicted  by  a  so-called  Independent  Press. 


The  dispatches  to  the  San  Francisco  Herald,  in  1869,  showed  how  very  far 
superior,  in  all  respects,  would  be  the  telegraphic  news  columns  of  our  papers, 
if  we  had  a  Postal  Telegraph,  and  were  completely  disenthralled  from  the 
yoke  of  the  twin  monopolies,— the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.  and  the  As¬ 
sociated  Press.  The  Herald. I,  on  main  items  of  interest,  was  frequently  from  12 
to  24  hours  in  advance  of  Simonton’s  bureau  dispatches.  Every  reader  of  the 
Herald  will  remember  that  fact.  [The  Herald  was  destroyed  by  the  deliberate 
breaking  of  a  contract,  on  the  part  of  the  W.  U.  Tel.  Co.] 

And  now  look  at  the  grossly  partisan  character  of  the  telegraphic  dis¬ 
patches.  What  indisputable  testimony  they  are  to  the  fact  that  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party,  as  a  national  political  organization,  is  anti-monopoly; — no  matter 
how  many  railroad  lackies  may  get  into  office  in  California,  while  falsely  pro¬ 
fessing  Democratic  sentiments.  Most  indubitably,  the  telegraph  monopoly 
dreads  a  national  Democratic  victory;  and  most  anxious  is  it  to  foist  the  nomina¬ 
tion  of  a  no-account  presidential  candidate  on  the  Democratic  Nominating  Con¬ 
vention  of  1880.  To  this  end,  the  New  York  World,  (Jay  Gould’s  so-called 
“  Democratic  ”  organ,)  and  the  San  Francisco  Call  and  Bulletin,  avowed  rail¬ 
road  and  telegraph  companies’  organs,  are  making  every  possible  effort  of 
cajolery  and  cursing,  to  induce  the  Democracy  not  to  re-nominate  the  greatest 
Jeffersonian  statesman  of  the  age,  the  President  elect,  Samuel  J.  Tilden. 

When  there  is  a  Democratic  victory,  it  is  made  to  appear  insignificant. 
Maine  is  represented  as  Republican  by  a  popular  vote;  and  the  fact  to  the 
contrary  transpiring,  that  fact  is  half-way  confessed,  or  mentioned  not  at  all. 

When  Chicago  goes  Democratic  by  4,000  majority,  the  fact  is  not  stated 
in  dispatches  to  the  Pacific  Coast  until  24  hours  after  it  is  known  in  the  Lake 
City  ;  and  then  it  is  leaked  out  in  a  most  obscure  sort  of  way,  in  a  diminutive 
paragraph;  while,  in  the  meantime,  “NEWS”  is  telegraphed  in  the  shape 
of  flatulent  editorials  from  Jay  Gould’s  and  Simonton's  New  York  sheets, — 
opinions,  by  the  yard,  from  the  monopoly  organs,  founded  upon  misrepresenta¬ 
tions  of  current  political  events. 


In  Europe,  the  weekly  papers  have  the  very  latest  news  telegraphed  by 
the  column,  specially,  from  metropolitan  and  other  cities.  They  can  afford  it, 


16 


under  Postal  Telegraph  news-dispatch  prices.  So  it  should  be  with  us;  and 
our  Sonoma  Demoo'at ,  Stanislaus  News,  Mountain  Democrat,  Colusa  Sun, 
Santa  Clara  Argus,  Downey  Outlook,  and  other  excellent  interior  weeklies, 
should  have  their  telegraphic  columns  loaded  up  to  the  last  hour  of  type¬ 
setting. 


APPENDIX  E. 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  broke  up  H.  L.  Davis’  Commer¬ 
cial  News  Agency,  at  Cincinnati,  because  he  destroyed,  in  that  city,  the  mo¬ 
nopoly  of  telegraphed  commercial  news.  It  was  one  of  the  most  aggravated 
cases  of  business-theft  by  a  corporation — as  against  a  single  individual — ever 
put  on  the  indisputable  record. 


APPENDIX  F. 

The  Telegraphed' — organ  of  the  Telegraphic  Fraternity — October  31st, 
1874,  says : 

“  In  treating  of  automatic  telegraphy,  we  regret  to  notice  that  Mr.  Orton 
seems  not  as  yet  to  have  made  any  material  progress  towards  an  appreciation 
of  its  merits  and  advantages.  He  does  not  attempt  to  argue  the  question,  and 
only  states  one  objection,  and  that  very  old,  and  at  first  sight,  plausible  one, 
relative  to  the  time  occupied  in  preparing  messages  for  transmission.  *  *  * 

We  are  not  personally  or  pecuniarily  interested  in  any  automatic  system  or 
patent,  but  believing  that  automatic  telegraphy  [by  which  500  words  a  minute 
can  be  telegraphed]  can  alone  completely  solve  the  problem  of  cheap  and  profit¬ 
able  telegraphy  in  the  future,  we  had  had  hoped  that  Mr.  Orton  would  have 
received  some  new  light  on  the  subject  since  the  preparation  of  his  previous 
official  documents.” 

Unless  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  can  control  a  patent — and 
for  a  long  time  it  suppressed  inventions,  practically,  by  sneering  them  down,  as 
in  the  case  of  duplex  telegraphy — »the  managers  cannot  “see”  any  benefit 
in  them.  So  it  has  been  the  case  that  for  years  Europe  was  enjoying  duplex 
and  automatic  telegraphic  facilities,  while  the  Western  Union  held  its  opera¬ 
tors  (at  constantly  falling  wages)  to  the  original  one-current  system  of  com¬ 
munication. 


Since  delivering  this  lecture  I  have  received  numerous  communications 
from  “  operators  ”  who  “did  not  wish  to  be  known  ”  as  my  correspondents,  lest 
they  should  lose  their  places  in  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  in 
which  communications  nil  my  statements  have  been  corroborated,  so  far  as  they 
came  within  the  writer’s  line  of  personal  observation. 

As  I  was  a  telegraph  operator  as  early  as  1850 — having  had  charge  of  an 
important  junction  office  when  a  boy — and  as  I  have  kept  up  my  interest  in 
telegraphy  since  that  date,  I  can  speak  with  definiteness  and  precision  in  the 
premises.  I  know  that  the  charges  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company 
are  extortionate,  and  that  that  Company  has  labored  to  suppress  inventions 
which  it  could  not  buy  for  a  song. 


Now  I  chance  to  run  across  this  paragraph  in  a  letter  signed  *  ‘  Quien 
Sabe,”  in  looking  over  a  file  of  The  Telegrapher  of  the  date  of  Febuarv  13th, 
1875  :  “It is  a  singular  fact  that  every  improvement  in  the  cost  of  telegraphy 


17 


which  has  been  brought  out  in  the  last  seven  years  has  been  developed  upon 
opposition  lines ;  and  whatever  of  them  the  Western  Union  Company  have 
acquired  was  first  contemptuously  decried.  Even  now,  with  all  this  painful 
experience,  an  employee  of  the  Western  Union  Company  (and  in  their  service 
is  some  of  the  best  telegraphic  talent  in  the  world)  cannot  obtain  a  fair  hearing 
and  trial  with  any  improvement  which  is  counter  to  ante-diluvian  notions,  but 
is  forced  to  convey  his  brain- work,  much  against  his  will,  to  the  enemies  of  his 
employer  for  development,  or  defraud  himself  of  honest  recompense.  ’  ’ 

Of  course,  when  the  Western  Union  has  found  a  competing  line  cutting 
into  it  badly,  it  has  frequently  bought  it  out  or  off  at  a  high  figure — new  pat¬ 
ent  and  all !  For  all  which  the  public  has  been  made  to  suffer. 

The  communication  from  which  I  have  quoted  above  is  editorially  ap¬ 
proved  by  The  Telegraphed',  which,  although  friendly  to  the  monopoly’s  offi¬ 
cers,  was  compelled  to  confess  the  truth  of  “  Quien  Sabe’s  ”  arraignment.  I 
take  this  from  the  editorial : 

“  It  is  essentially  necessary  that  the  Western  Union,  as  the  great  telegraph 
company  of  the  country,  and  by  all  odds  the  largest  telegraph  company  in  the 
world,  considering  the  extent  and  importance  of  its  lines,  should  be  kept  well 
up  with,  if  not  in  advance  of,  the  progress  of  telegraphic  invention  and  devel¬ 
opment.  While  it  could  not  reasonably  be  expected  that  it  should  adopt  every 
so-called  improvement  and  invention  that  may  be  presented  to  it  for  examina¬ 
tion,  yet  all  such  should  be  carefully,  candidly,  and  intelligently  investigated, 
and  if  found  to  be  really  of  value  and  importance  the  inventors  should  be  fairly 
and  liberally  dealt  with,  and  the  benefit  thereof  secured  to  the  company. 
That  such  has  not  been  the  case  hitherto,  all  who  have  sought  to  demonstrate 
their  inventions,  with  one  notable  exception,  have  found,  to  their  discourage¬ 
ment  ; — delay  and  red  tape  intervene  until  the  inventor  is  discouraged,  and  is 
compelled  to  seek  elsewhere  for  a  purchaser,  among  those  who  are  inimical  to 
the  interests  of  the  company.” 


The  Telegrapher  of  April  24th,  1875,  editorially  says  :  “  The  introduction 
of  the  Duplex  apparatus,  which  was  decried  by  Western  Union  officials,  and 
declared  by  them  to  be  valueless,  but  subsequently  adopted  and  as  extravagantly 
lauded  by  them  as  it  had  been  previously  decried,  was  an  important  step  in  the 
right  direction.” 

Bear  in  mind  that  the  Duplex  system  was  in  operation  in  Europe  many 
years  before  it  was  introduced  into  this  country  ;  but  no  sooner  had  quadruplex 
telegraphy  been  invented  in  this  country  (or  the  most  practical  method  been 
devised  by  'American  patentees)  than  it  was  adopted  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  Continent.  This  shows  the  difference  between  the  managements. 

However  pushed  at  this  time  to  take  inventors  into  its  employ,  the  West¬ 
ern  Union  Telegraph  Company  for  years  and  years  did  all  it  eould  to  directly 
suppress  improvements.  I  wish  to  sustain  my  assertions  on  this  point  by 
quotations  from  authorities  that  are  personally  friendly  to  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  officials  in  New  York  ;  as  this  is  a  point  on  which  there  has  been  and 
still  is  much  lying  on  the  part  of  persons  and  papers  claiming  to  represent  the 
Telegraph  Monopoly — as  a  liberal  and  beneficent  corporation  ! — to  the  people  of 
California. 

I  undertake  to  predict  that  within  one  year  after  the  adoption  of  a  Postal 
Telegraph  in  the  United  States,  our  telegrams  will  be  flashing  across  the 
continent  at  the  rate  of  500  words  per  wire  per  minute,  and  at  a  cost  to  the 
sender  of  not  over  25  cents  for  a  20-word  dispatch  ;  and  within  five  years  after 
the  complete  establishment  of  a  Postal  Telegraph  in  the  United  States  the 
tariff  for  messages  from  one  side  of  the  continent  to  the  other  will  not  exceed 
ten  cents  for  a  25- word  dispatch.  Such  reductions  must  follow,  even  with 
present  inventions  utilized  by  a  Governmental  Telegraph  Department  in  this 
country,  so  sure  as  day  follows  dawn. 


2 


18 


APPENDIX  G. 

In  1869,  twelve  tons  of  sulphuric  acid,  costing  $480,  supplied  the  current 
for  the  electric  telegraph  wires  in  Great  Britain  (85,000  miles)  for  one  year. — 
Quadruple  the  quantity  and  cost  of  the  acid  for  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company — conceding  that  they  have  over  300,000  miles  of  wire — and  the 
entire  cost  of  this  acid  for  that  Company  for  one  year  will  he  $1,920.  Say 
that  the  acid  costs  twice  as  much  in  the  United  States  as  in  Great  Britain, 
and  you  have  an  outside  estimate  of  $3,840.  If  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
monopoly  do  not  use  sulphuric  acid,  then  they  employ  cheaper  battery  ma¬ 
terial. 

At  one  time,  in  Boston,  the  compound,  after  the  electric  force  was  ex¬ 
hausted  from  the  batteries,  was  sold  for  more  than  the  original  simples  cost ! 

You  can  form  some  faint  guess  from  this  statement  of  the  enormous  profits 
of  the  telegraph  monopoly. 

The  Almighty  evidently  intended  that  by  the  electric  telegraph  we  should 
be  enabled  to  salute  one  another  from  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth  at  a 
nominal  cost.  And  yet  here  we  are  paying  from  four  to  ten  prices  over  and 
above  a  reasonable  tariff,  to  the  most  corrupt  and  corrupting  monopoly  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  How  long? 


APPENDIX  H. 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  officers  have  time  and  again  made  a  loud 
hurrah-sneering  noise  in  derision  of  the  automatic  telegraph . cheap  tele¬ 
graphy  would  break  up  their  rings . Recently,  some  of  the  telegraph 

monopoly’s  agents  and  officers  in  this  city  derided  the  idea  of  500  words  a- 

minute  by  the  automatic.  *  ‘  Ridiculous.  ” .  In  alluding  to  a  forthcoming 

article  in  one  of  our  popular  magazines,  the  New  York  Churchman,  the  princi¬ 
pal  organ  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  and  a  journal  of  the  highest 
character — in  its  issue  of  September  20th,  1879 — has  the  following:  “  This 
system  is  the  little  known  automatic  telegraph  which  for  a  year  was  in  opera¬ 
tion  between  New  York  and  Washington,  and  attained  the  marvellous  speed  of 
SEVERAL  THOUSAND  words  per  minute,  hut  has  now  disappeared  in 
the  litigation  of  rival  companies  V-— In  other  words:  has  been  suppressed — as 
Mr  Hubbard  declares — by  the  unscrupulous  cunning  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company. 


APPENDIX  ODDS  AND  ENDS. 

(1)  Under  date  of  April  20th,  1879,  Hon.  Montgomery  Blair,  Lincoln’s  Post¬ 
master-General,  and  son  of  “  old  man  Blair,”  a  Democrat  by  inheritance,  wrote 
me : 

“  I  am  with  you  on  the  telegraph  question,  and  whilst  Postmaster-General 
advocated  the  Government’s  taking  the  business.  *  *  *  I  was  in  favor  of 

the  Government  taking  hold  itself ;  but  if  that  could  not  be  done,  then  I  was 
in  favor  of  Government  aid  to  a  company  to  break  down  the  monopoly.” 


(2)  Mark  the  fact,  that  many  Postmaster-Generals  who  have  had  their  atten¬ 
tion  especially  directed  to  the  subject,  have  come  to  the  same  conclusion. 
Postmaster-General  Randall  said,  in  1869  :  “  The  ruling  principle  held  by 


19 


the  continental  governments  has  been,  that  telegraphic  correspondence  is  an¬ 
alogous  to  other  correspondence.  The  importance  of  possessing  permanent  and 
reliable  means  of  telegraphic  communication  is  considered  to  be  even  greater 
in  degree  than  the  necessity  of  an  efficient  postal  (mail)  service.  Throughout 
the  whole  of  continental  Europe  the  telegraph  is  under  the  exclusive  control 
and  mangement  of  the  respective  governments.” 


(3)  During  the  debate  in  the  United  States  Senate,  February  24th,  1879, 
Senator  Bayard — proverbial  for  his  extreme  cautiousness — said  :  “  I  do  not  deny 
the  wisdom  and  usefulness  of  free  telegraphing.  I  do  not  deny  that  much 
exists  in  the  way  of  a  monopoly.  A  power  so  great  that  it  can  absorb  almost 
all  the  smaller  independent  particles  of  power,  necessarily  becomes  too  enlarged 
for  public  safety .” 

Never  spoke  man  more  truly  up  to  this  point.  Any  reliance  on  State 
action  or  on  competition  to  break  down  this  tremendous  and  dangerous  monop¬ 
oly  is  vain. 


(4)  As  to  the  power  to  construct  independent  Governmeut  lines,  I  have  the 
opinion  of  Reverdy  Johnson,  then  acting  as  Assistant  Attorney-General  of  the 
United  States,  given  under  date  of  April  6th,  1874  : 

“I  am  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  the  Government  may  construct  a  line 
of  its  own,  and  transmit  all  messages  which  it  may  have  occasion  to  transmit, 
and  that  the  same  will  in  no  respect  whatever  interfere  with  any  rights  of  the 
existing  companies.” 

The  a  fortiori  argument  certainly  runs  from  this  opinion  in  favor  of  a 
general  postal  department  control  of  the  telegraph. 


(5)  The  Associated  Press  and  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company’s  agents 
at  Washington  make  it  very  clear  to  members  of  the  National  Legislature— 
U.  S.  Senators  and  Congressmen— that  any  sincere  effort  for  the  adoption 
of  a  Government  Postal  Telegraph  system  will  be  at  peril  of  public  and  pri¬ 
vate  reputation.  Of  course,  of  course,  these  associated  robbers  have  sham  bills 
for  Postal  Telegraphy  introduced  and  paraded,  and  quietly  laid  to  sleep  in 
their  little  committee  beds,  by  the  A.  A.  Sargents,  etc.,  of  the  capital.  [But 
these  sham  and  heading-off  bills  do  testify  loudly  to  the  inherent  and  incontest- 
ible  merits  of  the  Postal  Telegraph  scheme.]  They  are  introduced  because  the 
authors  want  to  set  in  the  pigeon-hole  a  “record”  for  the  surely  coming 
by-and-by,  when  the  people  will  call  for  this  Reform  with  almost  one  voice  ; 
but  more  particularly  they  are  introduced  to  head  off  honest  and  earnest 
immediate  effort  on  the  part  of  national  legislators,  in  the  direction  indicated. 
This  is  understood  by  those  who  are  watching  events  at  Washington  with  a 
view  to  promote  the  scheme  for  which  I  am  contending. 


(6)  Let  the  people  of  California  be  apprised  of  the  facts.  We  need  a  Postal 
Telegraph  more  than  any  other  people  on  the  globe.  It  is  bad  enough  for  our 
Senators  to  oppose  such  a  scheme  openly,  defiantly.  It  is  worse  for  them  to 
oppose  it  in  the  interests  of  the  greatest  monopoly  on  earth,  by  introducing 
sham  bills,  and  for  a  moment  pretending  to  be  a  friend  of  such  a  measure. 

Sincere  men  do  not  introduce  bills  in  a  legislature  and  then  let  them  sleep 
the  sleep  of  the  dead  without  summons  or  protest. 


(7)  Electrician  Field  furnished  the  San  Francisco  Herald  office,  in  1869,  with 

an  itemized  statement  of  cost  of  a  two-wire  line  from  San  Francisco  to  Omaha. 
He  put  the  total  cost  at  that  time  of  a  two- wire  line  from  S.  F.  to  Omaha  at 
$370,000.  _ 

(8)  In  his  report,  submitted  in  the  winter  of  1869,  Postmaster-General  Randall 
said  : 


20 


“  A  thorough  examination  oP  the  postal  telegraph  subject  has  satisfied  me 
that  the  Department  can  arrange  for  the  reception  and  delivery  of  messages, 
the  furnishing  of  stamps,  and  keeping  the  accounts,  without  any  great  increase 
in  the  number  of  clerks ;  that  the  business  may  be  made  a  source  of  revenue 
to  the  Government ;  and  that  the  efficiency  of  the  country  postmasters  may  be 
increased  by  employing  them  in  connection  with  the  telegraph.” 

Of  course,  Beck’s  statement  that  50,000  additional  clerks  would  b&  imme¬ 
diately  required  is  an  exaggeration.  But  suppose  it  was  so  ordered.  As 
suggested  elsewhere  :  the  convenience  to  the  people  would  be,  in  every  sense, 
ample  compensation  for  the  additional  employment. 


(9)  You  pay  two  dollars  for  a  ten-word  dispatch  from  here  to  the  Atlantic 
States,  when  you  should  not  pay  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company 
one-fourth  that  amount ;  when  the  U.  S.  Government  would  make  money  if  it 
had  the  monopoly  of  sending  dispatches  at  the  rate  of  ten  cents  for  twenty- 
word  dispatches  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York,  and  other  points  in  propor¬ 
tion. 

In  California,  we  pay  four  to  ten  prices  for  telegraphing.  The  cost  of  a 
ten-word  dispatch  from  San  Francisco  to  Sacramento  is  forty  cents.  Govern¬ 
ment,  by  a  proper  postal  telegraph  system,  would  make  money  on  a  charge  of 
five  cents  for  a  twenty-word  dispatch  from  San  Francisco  to  Sacramento. 

Just  as  you  are  robbed  of  ten  cents  every  time  you  pay  the  Central  Pacific 
Company  fifteen  cents  for  a  ferry  and  car  ride  to  Oakland,  so  are  you  robbed  of 
thirty  to  thirty-five  cents  every  time  you  pay  40  cents  for  a  ten-word  dispatch 
hence  to  the  capital  of  the  State.  And  so  throughout  the  State,  in  due  propor¬ 
tion. 


(10)  It  is  said  by  some  of  the  managers  and  talkers  for  the  Telegraph  monopoly, 
that  if  Government  obtained  control  of  the  Telegraph  the  messages  would  be 
under  party  espionage,  etc.  Now  this  is  rich  speech  from  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company’s  office !  There  cannot  be  a  more  dishonest,  partisan  con¬ 
trol  of  the  wires  than  that  of  the  Western  Union  Company.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  only  way  to  lift  the  telegraph  from  partisan  control  is  by  establishing 
a  responsible  Government  management.  With  governmental  control  we  will 
have  sworn  government  officials,  under  the  pains  and  penalties  that  command 
efficiency  and  honesty  in  our  Postal  department. 


(11)  Mr.  George,  in  his  recent  work  on  political  economy,  says  : 

“And  just  as  Buckingham’s  creatures,  under  authority  of  the  gold-thread 
patent,  searched  private  houses,  and  seized  papers  and  persons  for  purposes  of 
lust  and  extortion,  so  does  the  great  telegraph  company,  which,  by  the  power 
of  associated  capital,  deprives  the  people  of  the  United  States  of  the  full  bene¬ 
fits  of  a  beneficent  invention,  tamper  with  correspondence,  and  crush  out  news¬ 
papers  which  offend  it.” 


(12)  The  Printers’  National  Union,  in  1869,  adopted  strong  resolutions  in  fa¬ 
vor  of  a  Postal  Telegraph,  even  at  the  risk  of  grievously  offending  employers. 
Why  ?  Because  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  and  the  Associated 
Press  form  together  a  society  for  suppressing  newspaper  enterprise,  which  ac¬ 
tion  lessens  the  demand  for  printers  and  reduces  their  wages.  But  the  monop¬ 
oly  has  managed  to  suppress  any  such  action,  from  such  a  source,  since  the 
date  mentioned — so  far  as  I  have  observed. 


(13)  So  enormously  in  excess  of  a  just  tariff  are  the  charges  of  the  Western  Un¬ 
ion  Telegraph  Company,  that  “  competition  ’  ’  is  constantly  springing  up  be¬ 
tween  main  points  ;  and  there  is  a  temporary  reduction  on  competing  lines, 
and  then  a  sell-out  by  the  new  company,  and  then  a  re-establishment  of  extor¬ 
tionate  prices.  A  new  line  is  in  process  of  building  in  the  Eastern  States, 


21 


between  main  points  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  at  this  date — September,  1879. 
It  is  safe  to  prophesy  the  old,  old  story  of  brief  rivalry  and  then  harmonious  unjon 
of  forces,  and  the  old  schedule  of  prices,  or  nearly  that — perhaps  a  little  higher, 
perhaps  a  trifle  lower. 


(14)Jhe  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  has  cut  down  the  wages  of  the 
workers  in  employ  as  telegraph  operators,  etc.,  fifty  per  cent,  since  it  obtained 
piactical  monopoly  of  the  telegraph  business.  The  Operator ,  “A  Journal  of 
Scientific  and  Practical  Telegraphy,”  in  issue  of  December  15th,  1877,  refer¬ 
ring  to  this  matter,  says :  “  Increased  net  profits  and  another  dividend,  but 
not  a  word  about  reinstatement  of  operator’s  salaries.” 

The  Railroad  and  Telegraph  monopolies  practically  own  the  Republican 
party,  and  they  fee  so-called  Workingmen’s  Agitators  to  promote  division  in 
the  Democratic  Party.  So  are  Workingmen  lead  by  the  nose  to  aid  in  work  of 
reducing  the  wages  of  labor. 


(15)  In  1870,  the  Montreal  Telegraph  Company  reduced  their  rates  to  twenty- 
five  cents  for  a  ten- word  message,  and  found  the  reduction  paid.  Says  the  Tele¬ 
grapher ,  November  4th,  1874:  “At  the  time  this  reduction  was  made  it  was 
regarded  by  telegraph  managers  this  side  of  the  line  [i.  e.,  in  the  United 
States]  as  a  hazardous  one,  but  the  result  has  proved  that  the  Canadian  Com¬ 
pany  acted  intelligently,  for  the  reduced  rate  has  proved  not  only  satisfactory 
but  profitable — the  revenues  having  steadily  increased .” 

Proportionate  rates  in  this  country — proportionate  to  Canadian  rates  as  far 
back  as  1870 — would  set  our  tariff  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York  at  fifty 
cents  for  a  ten-word  message !  Just  think  of  it :  the  length  of  time  during 
which  we  have  been  suffering  from  most  indisputable  extortions  from  this 
insolent  part  proprietor  of  the  Republican  Party  of  the  United  States — the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company. 

Oh !  but  it  costs  more  to  build  and  maintain  telegraphy  in  the  United 
States.  Quite  to  the  contrary.  It  costs  more  in  G-reat  Britain  and  in  Canada 
to  build  and  maintain  telegraphic  lines  than  in  our  country. 

The  Telegrapher,  of  above  date,  goes  on  to  say  :  “It  should  be  remembered 
in  this  connection  that  the  territory  covered  by  the  Company  is  much  inferior, 
telegraphically,  to  that  of  the  principal  United  States  companies.” 


(16)  “The  reason  that  residents  of  Nevada  are  compelled  to  pay  as  much 
freight  from  the  East  as  though  their  goods  were  carried  to  San  Francisco  and 
back  again,  is  that  the  authority  which  prevents  extortion  on  the  part  of  a 
hack  driver  is  not  exercised  in  respect  to  a  railroad  company.  *  *  *  There 

is  the  same  reason  why  the  Government  should  carry  telegraphic  messages  that 
it  should  carry  letters.” — From  George’s  Progress  and  Poverty. 


(17)  The  illegitimate  profits  of  the  inside  ring  managers  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  must  be  enormous.  One  of  these  managers  died  in  1871, 
or  thereabouts,  and  left  a  splendid  church  edifice  in  Washington.  The  church 
is  said  to  be  haunted.  On  stormy  nights,  when  there  is  thunder  and  lightning, 
it  is  said  that  goblins  may  be  seen  officiating  at  one  end  of  the  nave,  immers¬ 
ing  candidates  for  membership  in  watered  stock. 


(18)  On  page  33  of  one  of  President  Orton’s  pamphlet  reports,  he  said  that  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company’s  monopoly  was  “menaced”  by  “  con¬ 
stant  agitation  of  various  schemes  for  the  construction  and  operation  of  Gov¬ 
ernment  telegraphs.”  That 'was  ten  years  ago.  He  added:  “We  trust  that 
the  subject  will  be  effectually  settled  during  the  present  session  of  Congress,  and 
the  incubus  which  has  so  long  rested  on  this  important  enterprise — [that  is, 
the  “menace”  of  a  Government  telegraph] — be  removed.”  Was  ever  inso- 


22 


lence  like  this  ?  And  in  the  same  spirit,  Orton  and  his  successor  have  talked 
ar#  towereCKever  since  1869. 

In  the  winter  of  1875,  I  was  in  Washington,  and  was  called  upon  to  testify 
before  the  special  committee  to  whom  a  bill  affecting  telegraphic  matters  had 
been  referred.  For  several  minutes  after  my  examination  opened,  I  thought 
that  Orton — whom  I  had  never  seen  before — was  chairman  of  the  committee  ! 
He  certainly  “  run  ”  the  meetin’.  He  denied  the  truth  of  many  sti^pments 
which  I  made,  without  any  hesitation  ;  rolling  his  eyes,  and  keeping  time  with 
“  O  !  ”  “  O  !  ”  “  O  !  ”  O  !  ”  exclamations  ;  and  in  unison  with  a  gross  beast 
of  a  lobby  “lawyer,”  so-called,  overflowed  and  overflowed  with  amazement  at 
my  audacity,  etc.  What  I  had  to  say,  and  what  I  did  say,  was  matter  of 
notoriety  in  San  Francisco;  and,  for  the  most  part,  was  founded  upon  or  con¬ 
nected  with  a  certain  printed  protest — printed  in  circular  and  in  the  columns  of 
the  New  York  “Herald,”  five  or  six  years  before  I  put  in  this  committee  ap¬ 
pearance.  Orton  denied  that  there  ever  was  such  a  protest.  The  author  of 
the  protest  referred  to,  (Henry  George,)  afterward  telegraphed  to  the  commit¬ 
tee  from  San  Francisco  a  complete  confirmation  of  my  testimony,  (and  more). 
Some  of  the  members  of  the  committee  told  Hon.  J.  K.  Luttrell  that  “  your 
friend  Sumner  was  too  well  posted  for  old  man  Orton,”  etc.  Richard  Lam¬ 
bert,  correspondent  of  the  “Evening  Post,”  told  me  subsequently,  that  the 
phonographic  report  of  my  testimony  was  “  cooked  and  cut  down  ”  to  suit  the 
W.  U.  Tel.  folks,  and  that  he  had  so  remarked  to  Jim.  Simonton. 

I  give  the  above  as  an  indication  of  the  overbearing  insolence  and  the 
defiant  rule  and  rascality  of  the  telegraph  monopoly  management — as  repre¬ 
sented  at  the  seat  of  national  legislation. 


(19)  In  an  “argument” — so-called — by  James  Gamble,  of  San  Francisco, 
General  Superintendent  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  presented  to  a 
committee  of  the  Assembly,  March  18th,  1878,  James  made  the  subjoined  state¬ 
ment.  I  copy  from  his  written  “  argument,”  submitted  over  his  signature  : 

“  The  British  Government  Telegraphs,  it  is  a  well-known  fact,  do  not  pay 
expenses  even  with  its  (sic)  great  population.  In  1873,  the  total  receipts  for 
telegrams  in  the  United  Kingdom  was  $5,024,665;  expenses,  $6,145,414; 
showing  a  loss  of  $1,120,749.  In  1876,  the  total  receipts  were  $6,565,535  ; 
expenses,  $7,741,650  ;  showing  a  loss  of  $1,176,115.  This  being  the  case,  how 
can  it  be  expected,  etc.” 

Now  the  Queen’s  Postmaster-General  does  not  agree  with  Gamble  ;  and  I 
submit  that  the  Queen’s  officer  is  as  apt  to  know  the  true  figures,  and  as  much 
disposed  to  state  the  truth  about  the  revenues  of  the  British  Postal  Telegraph 
as  Gamble  : 


Gross 

Revenues  from 

Messages 
and  from 
Wires  Rented 
by  Cable 
Companies. 

Total  Revenue 

Net 

Collected. 

Revenue. 

1873 . 

$6,530,275 

$7,005,385 

$574,875 

1876 . 

7,367,385 

8,119,190 

1,225,580 

Instead  of  a  loss  of  $1,120,749,  as  represented  by  Gamble — the  San  Fran¬ 
cisco  jigger er  for  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  monopoly — we  have  in  1873  a 
“net  revenue  ”  of  $574,875 — a  discrepancy  against  Gamble  of  $1,695,624  ! 
And  for  1876,  we  find  Gamble  is  $2,401,695  distant  from  the  truth  ! 


23 


After  indulging  in  this  trifling  misrepresentation  of  four  millions  of  dol¬ 
lars,  in  the  aggregate  of  figures,  the  inflated  Gamble  devotes  most  of  his  re¬ 
maining  space  for  “  argument”  to  sneering  at  a  party  by  the  name  of  Jack- 
son,  who,  it  doth  appear,  was  once  in  the  employ  of  the  monopoly,  but  who 
had  the  impudence  to  testify  before  the  Assembly  Committee  in  favor  of  cheaper 
rates  in  California. 

Biit  seriously  meditate  upon  the  actual  audacity  of  the  monopoly’s  agents, 
as  illustrated  by  the  above  discrepancies. 

Gamble  undoubtedly  never  dreamed  that  any  outsider  would  see  the  figures 
we  have  quoted  —  buried,  as  they  were,  in  the  belly  of  his  “argument  ”  ;  and 
probably  pointed  out  and  emphasized  before  unsophisticated  members  of  a  Cali¬ 
fornia  Assembly  Committee. 

Do  you  not  suppose  that  if  Gamble’s  figures,  as  given  above,  were  correct, 
they  would  have  been  conspicuously  paraded  and  paraded  and  paraded  in  the 
editorial  columns  of  the  beautiful  brace  of  monopoly  flunky  organs,  the  Bul¬ 
letin  and  Call  f 


Of  course,  of  course,  if  the  British  Postal  Telegraph  did  cost  a  deficiency 
appropriation  of  one  or  two  millions  of  dollars — or  pounds,  even, — every  year, 
the  money  should  not  be  and  would  not  be  begrudged.  Often  have  the  United 
States  paid  millions  for  annual  Postal  Department  deficiencies,  and  no  one 
citizen  ever  thought  of  complaining.  A  million,  two  millions,  or  even  three 
or  four  millions  of  current  deficiency  for  and  during  the  establishment  of  a 
Postal  Telegraph  in  this  Nation,  would  not  provoke  one  word  of  regret  or  ob¬ 
jection  on  the  part  of  any  intelligent,  disinterested  citizen,  who  was  brought 
into  a  practical  realization  of  the  convenience  and  civilizing  force  of  the 
system.  Of  course  not. 

But  mark  the  falsehoods  of  the  monopolists, — slyly  slipped  into  manu¬ 
script  “argument.”  Falsehoods  of  algebraic,  plus  and  minus,  magnitude. 


(20)  The  Monopoly  makes  a  great  hurrah  when  from  their  ten-times-too- 
much  prices  they  take  off  a  few  cents.  But  just  imagine  that  you  could  to¬ 
day  telegraph  to  the  old  folks  at  home  for  twenty-five  cents  per  ten-word 
message.  Just  resolve  to  contribute  your  share  of  work  and  influence  towards 
securing  the  establishment  of  a  Postal  Telegraph,  and  you  will  have  such  a 
luxury  at  such  a  price ;  and  with  every  added  two  years  of  such  a  Department 
Life  in  the  United  States  you  will  witness  a  further  reduction,  until  your 
ample  letter  will  go  by  lightning  from  California  to  the  Eastern  States  at  pres¬ 
ent  postage  rates ! 


(21)  The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  has  a  con  venient  way  of  “  fix¬ 
ing  ”  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress — as  the  lobby  calls  it — by 
“compromising”  the  honorable  gentlemen.  Thus,  Senator  Conkling,  a  bitter 
opponent  of  a  Postal  Telegraph  up  to  date,  is  one  of  the  monopoly’s  lawyers. 
He  appeared  as  such  as  early  as  1872  ;  and  as  late  as  the  22nd  of  February,  1879, 
he  went  out  of  his  way  to  express  in  the  Senate  his  hostility  to  such  a  system. 
(See  Cong.  Record,  45th  Congress,  3rd  Session,  page  1763. 

Any  Senator  or  Representative  who  dares  oppose  the  monopoly  will  be 
sneered  at  in  the  dispatches  ;  any  Senator  or  Representative  who  will  keep  still 
on  this  subject — or  introduce  a  sham-bill — will  be  puffed,  puffed,  puffed  in  the 
dispatches.  You  can  hardly  realize,  without  personal  observation  at  Washing¬ 
ton,  what  a  tremendous  power  this  is,  in  the  way  of  intimidating  or  seducing 
national  legislators  from  their  duty. 


(22)  I  shall  be  pleased  to  attend  and  lecture  on  Postal  Telegraphy  at  any  place 
not  over  two  hours’  travel  from  San  Francisco,  when  suitable  arrangements 
for  an  audience  shall  have  been  made,  and  due  notice  given. 


■ 


' 


’ 


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